Chapter 285: Shuna is Still Conquering the DungeonEven for Shuna, who knew the dungeon system inside out, rich with knowledge and experience in exploring dungeons, facing...

    a dungeon level without any “monsters,” traps, or even an exit in sight...

    ...but was asked to turn a white block in three directions, was still bewildering.

    “Huh?”

    “Hello, the directions are front, side, and back. Please.”

    “Ahem... You’re quite polite?”

    “Front. Please raise your hand slightly, 45 degrees.”

    Click.

    “Side. Please raise your hand to show your side.”

    Click.

    “Back. Please maintain the same pose as the front.”

    Shuna’s first rule of dungeon exploration: when “lost” or “confused” on a certain level, always follow the dungeon’s “guidance.”

    Whether it’s a monster waiting to be fought, a pit that looks like a trap, or a sign that says “Exit Ahead.”

    At first, she thought this rule was practical and could temporarily solve problems.

    After experiencing the Tenth Demon Castle and hearing Lucifa explain the rules of the dungeon side, she found a theoretical basis for this principle.

    Dungeons themselves rely on adventurers to progress deeper to accumulate “energy,” so there’s no reason to block their progress on any level.

    But...

    What exactly is this for?

    “Decoding successful, please enter the ‘Will Hysterm’ data now.”

    Decoding?

    Shuna tilted her head, puzzled by the term.

    “And, Will? Why is it Will’s data? Where did that woman Treya throw me? Isn’t this her dungeon?”

    After listening, Shuna quickly had some “guesses.”

    Since demons control emotions, memories, and contracts, is it possible...

    that this is Will’s extracted memories or something similar?

    If so, could she see some very cute things?

    Like baby Will?

    Like the super serious Will who first wrote her that letter?

    Like the Will who was bullied and cried at school?

    But in the next moment, although she was standing still, the white surroundings began to move rapidly and crazily—

    These scenes had something like “photos” on them, but they moved very fast, and the continuous still “photos” moved rapidly before Shuna’s eyes.

    “It should be just still images, but moving at this speed, it becomes like a moving image... right?”

    At the same time, the entire space was filled with “language” Shuna couldn’t understand at all.

    “▆▆W▆▆Chuang▆▆▆Yige▆▆▆...”

    The reason she could still recognize it as “language” was that she could hear some regularity in the pronunciation, not a string of “gibberish.”

    “Hearing incomprehensible language in a dungeon is normal. But... if this is Will’s memory, why are there so many completely new languages I don’t understand?” Sёar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    She was very confident!

    Although she hadn’t communicated face-to-face with others, she had learned at least four or five languages through books. A brand-new language was the first time she encountered it.

    She stayed calm, folded her arms, and focused intently on every “photo” flashing before her eyes.

    “Can’t see clearly, are Will’s memories this blurry?”

    Unlike what Shuna expected.

    She didn’t see the “baby” Will.

    She couldn’t even make out the images clearly.

    The “photos” were of poor quality, most of them only showing “colors” and “shadows,” let alone recognizing them.

    But...

    These colors and shadows gave Shuna a “strange” feeling, as if they didn’t exist in this world.

    “If it were my memory, from when I came to this world to now... it should be very clear.”

    She muttered to herself and then paused.

    “Haha, well, I have no memory before the age of thirteen, so I can’t know how a normal person remembers their childhood.”

    But...

    Suddenly...

    The countless flashing photos, whoosh, stopped at one—

    And the surrounding noise ceased in that instant.

    Like flipping a book quickly and suddenly reaching the last page of the ending, so this “ending” would stay in front of her for a long time.

    “Hmm?”

    This “photo” was very large, like a four-meter-high wall standing before Shuna.

    On it...

    was a “drawing” that seemed like a draft, but compared to other photos Shuna had seen, it was unexpectedly very clear.

    A girl with black hair and black eyes, but the lines were slightly messy, holding a dagger to her neck with one hand, and another dagger in the other hand pointing towards the camera, with a glint of light.

    “......”

    Shuna’s mind began to race rapidly—

    Although it was just a “drawing,” although it seemed like just a few strokes of a draft, even the expression was only an outline.

    But...

    She recognized it at a glance.

    “This is... me?”

    The moment she said this, strange sounds echoed around.

    Thump-thump-thump-thump—

    Heartbeats.

    The room was filled with the sound of intense heartbeats, but Shuna could tell, these heartbeats were not normal, they were very “chaotic” and accelerating...

    Accompanying the heartbeats were the completely incomprehensible languages, as if chanting a “word” with three syllables.

    “▆▆▆, ▆▆▆... ▆▆▆!”

    As if some “accident” was accelerating, the whole picture began to shake violently.

    Ding—

    “This is... what sound?”

    At the sound of this bell-like chime, when she finished speaking, the white space suddenly went black, plunging her into “darkness.”

    “......”

    Although she couldn’t see anything, couldn’t feel anything, she didn’t move, didn’t do anything.

    Just stood still.

    “Don’t rush, the light will come back soon.”

    For some reason, knowing this was “Will’s” memory, she still maintained vigilance, thinking that some super monster might appear somewhere in the dungeon.

    But after seeing that unfinished, seemingly “draft” drawing, she became very “at ease.”

    As if standing here, nothing would dare to harm her.

    An unusual sense of “security.”

    “Waaah—”

    Finally, she heard the cry of a baby.

    The black space she was standing in, like a newborn opening its eyes, opened a “slit” from the distant horizon.

    Then, she found herself in a complete room, and before her, it seemed to reproduce the scene in memory.

    The room looked luxurious, like something only “nobles” would live in. Combined with the baby’s cry heard earlier, this should be...

    the place where Will was born.

    Then—

    Sure enough, she turned and saw the “child” lying in the small crib.

    “Tiny Tiny Tiny Tiny Tiny Tiny Will—!”

    But he didn’t cry or fuss, his deep blue eyes darting around, as if trying to gather all the information about “this world.”

    “Well, you can’t see me. Right. This is ‘memory’ not the past, I can’t interfere with you.”

    “Sir, I’m sorry, we tried our best, but Lady...”

    The doctor standing beside Will spoke to someone “behind” Shuna. Now, Shuna could understand the words in the memory.

    “Wait... Could it be...”

    She turned and saw a man with light golden hair and golden-rimmed glasses behind her.

    “Undoubtedly... Carver Hysterm. But much younger.”

    Of course, no adventurer wouldn’t recognize the guild chairman. Especially in this era with photos, he was a celebrity.

    “Sir, please accept our condolences.”

    Although she could understand their words, their lips didn’t quite match. Looking closely, the positions of the people in the room were a bit strange.

    For example, Carver was floating above a chair, and the doctor was sitting on the railing of the crib.

    Like they were re-enacting the scene from others’ accounts, placing people in seemingly correct positions, and then filling in the lines.

    “It’s fine. I came back to see her for the last time.”

    Carver’s tone was unusually cold.

    “As for him—call him Will. After all, she hoped this child would live by his own will and determination.”

    He named him without hesitation, and after saying this, he turned away without any attachment.

    “I have other business to attend to, leave him to your care.”

    “...A bit irritating.”

    Arms crossed, Shuna stared at Carver’s back.

    Shuna had heard during her investigation of House Hysterm that Will was the only child born to Carver’s legitimate wife. But she died in childbirth. Since then, Carver not only had no more children but also cut off contact with the other women around him.

    But...

    Perhaps because this was Will’s memory, Shuna found Carver’s emotions quite abnormal.

    If he truly loved his wife, shouldn’t he be sad at her death in childbirth?

    If he was just putting on a show of being affectionate, shouldn’t he at least look at his child with excitement?

    But...

    In this memory, all Shuna saw was... his “numbness.” It was as if he had no emotions about this, just...

    “It’s enough to go through and experience it. Hmm... He seems to have that mindset.”

    Before she could think more, the room she was standing in began to “rotate” rapidly.

    Like the photos playing earlier, some blurry, some clear, scenes played out like a stage play, showing her little Will, how he learned to stand, walk, and talk, up to the age of four or five...

    By now, Shuna could confirm one thing—

    The memories were playing in “chronological order.”

    Not in a chaotic sequence.

    The blurry parts were probably memories Will thought unimportant, the clear parts... like when he fell using acceleration magic in winter and lay in bed for three days, were probably his most vivid memories.

    “So... if memories are played in chronological order here, and the memory of seeing Carver was from birth. Then before the black screen, the memory I saw... even with me in it, what exactly was it?”

    Several possibilities arose in Shuna’s mind.

    Like—

    A past life?

    “Haha, how could that happen.”

    Now, if you told her that Will might have had over twenty years of memories before he was born, and most importantly, she appeared in those memories—even the romance novels sold on the streets wouldn’t dare write such a story.

    “Forget it, let’s just see the cute little Will~”

    Shuna crouched down, watching the little Will hugging his teddy bear, sitting on the floor, earnestly playing with its arms.

    “A bit chubby, but... the eyes are as beautiful as now.”

    ......

    Childhood is often a time that feels long while living through it but short in retrospect.

    For Will, it was the same.

    In a blink, Shuna watched him through countless springs, summers, autumns, and winters.

    Another winter.

    In this winter, Shuna saw something that made her laugh out loud—

    The dog that had been with Will for many years, raised with such care, walked out of its kennel, stepped on its food bowl, spun around several times, hit a tree, and died.

    “This guy, why does he remember this scene so clearly? Even how the dog’s tail swung is vivid. You really are a strange person.”

    She said to herself, waving her hand.

    “Never mind, if I had encountered something so funny, I’d probably remember it for a lifetime too.”

    Then...

    She stood there, listening to Will’s entire “destiny” speech, and Eir’s self-identification from wolf to dog.

    These were fresh memories, something she hadn’t heard Will mention.

    “Talking about destiny at such a young age... you really are...”

    She couldn’t find the words and paused mid-sentence.

    Then she sat on the “snow,” although she couldn’t feel the “snow” in the memory.

    The scene began to rotate, returning to Will’s room. The room he had lived in since birth.

    There, she saw the most surprising... the most incredible thing in the entire memory.

    “Today is the first day of organizing the ‘system.’ Let me think, what should be written first...”

    Little Will, after everyone had gone to bed, climbed into his seat and turned on the desk lamp.

    He opened a red book and wrote Quest System on the first page.

    But he didn’t write anything on the first page.

    Instead...

    He turned to the last page.

    “Let’s write the ultimate quest first.”

    Shuna walked to the table.

    She looked at the last page of the book.

    [Reward: Find the ‘Heroine’ who belongs to you.]

    Then, Will, like a tireless typewriter, wrote...

    an entire page of heroines.

    At that moment, his expression was nothing like a child his age, not even like the current him.

    There was a rare...

    “madness” in him.